Defending You
by JL Wrighton
Summary: Someone hurts Lilly and James gets mad. Not romantic per-se, but very nice all the same. Please review, I love feedback.


_The inspiration hit me and I just had to write it! It's the sixth year and James and Lily are Head Boy and Girl. Enjoy!  
P.S. Wasn't Seamus **hot** in the Half-Blood Prince? I mean really!_

* * *

James woke up like he always did, getting yanked out of his bed by Sirius hollering and pulling on his sheets. "Come on man, I'm starving! I'm so hungry I could eat a dragon right now!" he hollered.  
After stumbling out of bed and getting dressed, he allowed himself to be dragged down the stairs, more or less awake. By the time they reached the Great Hall, he was sufficiently awake and exchanged wisecracks with Sirius.  
Sitting down to breakfast of eggs and ham, he noticed someone missing. "Where's Lily?" he asked. Sirius, with his mouth full of cinnamon roll, shrugged. "Ah joono, sheeping?" _(Translation: I dunno, sleeping?) _James thought about it, looking for her. She had been out patrolling pretty late last night, he hadn't seen her last night at all.  
After breakfast, they headed upstairs to grab books and supplies for Transfiguration. Still no sign of Lily, James grabbed the Map from his trunk. If she hadn't shown up by the end of class, he would look for her there. They headed upstairs to their classroom, picking up Remus on the way. Peter would have com with them, except he had Muggle Studies. He failed his OWL level Transfiguration. This week, they would be changing teapot's into kittens. Mostly they would come out with china patterns on them, or steam coming out their ears. Yesterday Sirius's still had a spout for a tail. Lily still wasn't present in class, and McGonagall didn't seem to notice.  
After class, he stopped Lilly's friend Alice in the hall. "Alice, where's Lily?"  
She scowled at him. "That's private information, and she told me not to tell a soul."  
She left and James turned to Sirius. "What is that all about?" He shrugged, "Couldn't tell ya mate. Maybe she's having a bad day and wanted to stay upstairs in her room.  
Refusing to believe that, he unfolded the Map as soon as they reached Potions, with Remus and Sirius gathering around to help. After a few minutes, Remus spotted her. "There she is, in the hospital wing!" James folded the map up as class began, leaving all of them wondering what Lily Evans, who came to class no matter what, was doing in the hospital wing.  
After Potions, they had a break. Remus and Sirius went to grab a snack from the kitchen's, while James hurried up to the hospital wing. Bursting through the door, he noticed that all of the beds were empty, except for one, with the curtains drawn. "Lily?" he called. He heard a gasp from the curtained bed. "Potter? What in the bloody hell are you doing here?" He rolled his eyes.  
"I was worried about you, seeing as Alice wouldn't tell me where you were and you missed class, which has never happened before. Since when have you called me Potter, and why are you hiding behind there?" She sighed mournfully. "James, I had an accident last night. I look terrible. Please leave."  
James walked closer to the bed. "You could never look ugly, and I'm not leaving until you tell me what's wrong." Lily sniffled a bit. "Alright, if you insist, pull back the curtain."  
Yanking them out of the way, he couldn't help gasping when he saw her. Big red pustules spelled out 'MUDBLOOD' on her face. She let him see them for a minute, before covering her face and sobbing. "I knew it, I must look terrible!" He sat down pulling her close into a hug. "I would never say you were ugly. How did this happen?" She explained, somewhat muffled from her sheets.  
"I was patrolling the third floor, when that awful Bellatrix and Lucius showed up. Regalus was with them. They cornered me and Bellatrix held me while they said some spell, a lot of words I can't remember, then Lucius said Mudblood and my face started stinging. It got so bad I passed out, and Alice and Frank found me around 3 this morning. They carried me to here, and promised to not tell. Madam Pomfrey's tried everything she can, but all it's done is hurt my face and make them a bit lighter."  
James stood up. He was bursting with rage, wanting to pound those worms to a pulp. He spun around. "Have the teacher's done anything about it?" Lily shook her head. "Several other students backed them up, saying that Bellatrix and Lucius were helping Regalus all night with his Charms homework. It's my word against theirs." James pounded his fist into his palm. "Then the Marauders are going to do it for you. We're going to get them to admit to what they did, and get the antidote, or counter-charm or whatever it takes. I promise." he left after that, still raging inside.

* * *

Skipping dinner that night, James dragged Remus and Sirius to the common room while it was abandoned. Relating the story to them, Sirius jumped up. "I don't care if Mother disowns me, I'm going back downstairs, and I'm going to beat Regalus into a bloody pulp. He'll be lucky to walk once I'm done with him."  
Remus for once, felt the same. "Not only do they hex her, but they have more of those Death-Eater wannabes back them up! So what are we doing?"  
James outlined a plan for the night. The gruesome threesome usually left dinner early, so it would be hard to get everything ready in time.  
Sirius went down to the supply closet to fetch some rope, Lupin to watch them and alert James when they were coming and James to knick some Veritaserum from Potions.  
By the time that Regalus, Bellatrix, and Lucius were finishing dinner, James, Sirius, and Lupin were waiting, hiding behind a large stone pillar. As they walked out of the Great Hall, the Marauders overheard them talking.  
"Did you see her face?"  
"Amazing Lucius, some of your best work."  
"Bet that will teach the filthy Mudblood."  
"Yeah all that equality junk will shut up after this!"  
Three shouts of "Stupefy!" later, Regalus, Bellatrix and Lucius were unconscious, levitating away, up to the sixth level...

Several hours later, Bellatrix jolted to, gagged and bound in a chair, locked up in an abandoned classroom. The last thing she could remember was laughing and then a flash of red light, and then, this. She looked around, noticing that Lucius and Regalus were still out of it. "Nice of you to join us Bella." a lazy voice said behind her. Sirius Black walked into view. "As you can see, the other two prats haven't woken up yet. I'll bet you're wondering why you're here. You see, you messed with Lilly Evans. And that made James Potter mad. Which means that James is currently fetching Headmaster Dumbledore, and Professor Slughorn, your Head of House, to hear your confession of the awful prank you pulled on Evans. So I'm staying here to force feed you Veritaserum, that way there's no dawdling around when they get here."  
He pulled the tape off her mouth, held her nose so that she had to breathe through her mouth, forcing her head back, so that the drops of potion trickled down her throat. After a moment he sat back down on the desk, watching jer. "Let's start with something easy. What's your name?"  
"Bellatrix Black."  
"Who am I?"  
"Sirius Black."  
"Who are you in love with?"  
"Tom Riddle, otherwise known as Lord Voldemort."  
"I don't get it, what do you see in him?"  
Just as the door swung open to reveal James, Remus, Dumbledore, and Slughorn, Bellatrix gave a shrug. "He's well hung." James looked from Sirius to Bellatrix.  
"Who's well hung?" Sirius rubbed his eyes. "Apparently, Lord Voldemort. if you will excuse me, I'm going to scrub my brain and take some Forgetfulness Potion." Stopping to punch Regalus twice, in the face, he took Remus and left. James stepped in front of her. "Did you or did you not, hex Lilly Evans last night?"  
"I didn't. Lucius Malfoy did."  
"And what did he do?"  
"He gave her a bad hex that spelled Mudblood in big letters on her face."  
"What is the counter-charm?"  
"Deler-episkey" James left to tell Lilly, leaving Bellatrix to face the teachers, both of whom looked furious.

* * *

James hurried into the hospital wing, making Lily jump and cover her head with a sheet. "Relax it's just me, not somebody that you care about." She took the sheet off and went back to eating her dinner. It must've hurt, because some of the pustules were on her lips, but she was struggling along.  
James wanted to try the spell right away, but didn't want to risk it backfiring and hurting her. Madam Pomfrey came bustling out of her office. "No visitors, it's late. What are you doing here Potter?" She sighed.  
"Have you been defending a girl's honor again? Really, you will offend the wrong person one of these days and it'll be bad for you." She started to walk back into her office. "I'll get the Skele-Gro." James hurried to stop her. "Actually, I chose to do it rather unviolently this time. I have the counter-charm for her curse." Madam Pomfrey turned around. "And do you have some kind of proof that it works?" James shuffled his feet a bit. "Well no, but I forced the girl that did it to tell me under Veritaserum." She shook her head. "What was it?"  
"Deler-episkey" Her eyes widened slightly. "Now that might do it. I didn't think of that one, probably the most basic." She turned to Lily. "Finish your dinner. I'm going to get a potion that will deaden the effects slightly, in case it does work. And something to deaden the pain, that one is known to sting a bit and the face is so sensitive..." She walked into her cupboards, talking more to herself now. James sat down next to Lilly, stealing her bread roll. She watched him out of the corner of her eye. "So what was Madam Pomfrey talking about?"  
"About what?"  
"About you 'defending a girl's honor'?" He picked at the blanket. "Nothing. I don't want to talk about it." Lilly tried to prod him for information, but Madam Pomfrey came with all of her potions. James told her the charm and left. Lily turned to the nurse. "What did you mean about him defending girl's honor?"  
The lady turned to her.  
"Well, ever since about a year ago, James started showing up here, with broken bones, nasty hexes, almost every hex put on him at one time or another. Last Halloween, he stumbled in with multiple cuts, bruises, and three broken bones. I asked him why he kept coming all beat up and he told me that people kept making fun of some girl, just because she was a muggle-born. And he didn't like it, so he started fighting. Let me tell you, any girl with a boy willing to fight for her on a daily basis, is one lucky girl."  
Lily drank the potions and watched in a mirror as the words faded away from her face. That night she headed back to the Common Room, sneaking in unnoticed. The Marauder's were gathered around the fireplace. Remus's voice could be heard across the room. "James will you ever tell her that you've been fighting for her? Any other girl would love that!" James sighed, staring into the fire.  
"Yeah, but this is Lily. She finds out I'm fighting, she snubs me for setting a bad example. She finds out I'm fighting for her, she'll hex me and say that she can fight her own battles. It doesn't matter, even when I try to be nice, she still doesn't smile. I'd give anything to make her smile. Just once."  
Lily slipped up to her room, feeling rotten. She usually had some sharp comment when he came to class bruised up and tired. And that entire time he'd been a wonderful person, being nice, taking no credit for it and even not asking her out twenty times a day. Tomorrow she would make it up to him...

James and Sirius sat down to breakfast as usual, just another day. The gruesome threesome glared from a distance, but they didn't care, it really didn't affect their minds. Mrs. Black sent a Howler to Sirius, but Sirius lit it on fire. Mrs. Black's voice began as it burned away. "HOW DARE YOU STRIKE YOUR BROTHER, YOU CAN FIND SOMEPLACE ELSE TO SPEND CHRISTMAS-" it faded away into a scream as the ashes blew away. He stabbed a piece of toast. "Honestly, she thinks I want to come home for Christmas? I'd rather be here. Anyway, she'll have to take me back by the end of the school year, she's still trying to marry me to Bella."  
Lily walked into the Great Hall, looking for James. She found him sitting in the middle of the table with Sirius. Walking up behind him, she tapped his shoulder lightly. He turned around, smiling a bit when he saw her. "Morning Lily. Did you sleep well?" She leaned down next to his ear. "Thank you so much for helping find the counter-charm. I do owe you one." She kissed his cheek, then smiled brightly. "Have a good day." She headed down to sit with Alice, and James turned back around with a dumbfounded look on his face, followed by a doozy grin. "This is going to be a good day." He said to Sirius. Sirius looked from Lily, who was trying not to blush, to James, who was unsucessfully trying to put jam on his toast. It looked like it was going to be a good year.


End file.
